Easy seahorse
- Thread starter Mac1999
- Start date
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As already mentioned, seahorses have a MUCH better chance of survival when placed in an appropriate dedicated tank.
While occasionally some hobbyists have succeeded keeping seahorses with clowns in the tank, most have bad experiences with them.
Personally I don't look at a seahorse being easier than another when you are considering most of the basic species normally sold to the hobbyists in North America.
IMO, seahorses need a tank that has water and husbandry that exceeds the levels of a reef tank in order to mitigate the affinity to nasty bacterial infections they succumb to so often.
While occasionally some hobbyists have succeeded keeping seahorses with clowns in the tank, most have bad experiences with them.
Personally I don't look at a seahorse being easier than another when you are considering most of the basic species normally sold to the hobbyists in North America.
IMO, seahorses need a tank that has water and husbandry that exceeds the levels of a reef tank in order to mitigate the affinity to nasty bacterial infections they succumb to so often.
Longsnout, H. reidi are just like the other seahorses available to us, they have been trained to eat frozen.
Even the cheaper imported seahorses have been trained onto frozen.
Best chances of success come with buying from a reputable seahorse breeder like Dan at seahorsesource.com.
IMO the majority, but not all of the seahorses sold in LFS's have come from breeding sources that don't go to the trouble and expense to raise them under best conditions and should be treated like purchasing wild caught and doing the deworming procedure before housing them in the display tank.
Unless you know who is the breeder of the ones for sale in the store, you don't know for sure because stores have been known to be misleading.
Also, many stores house the seahorses for sale in tanks that are part of a system that contains other fish. This exposes the seahorses to pathogens that they haven't grown up with and often succumb to once they do get that exposure.
My Thoughts on Seahorse Keeping
Even the cheaper imported seahorses have been trained onto frozen.
Best chances of success come with buying from a reputable seahorse breeder like Dan at seahorsesource.com.
IMO the majority, but not all of the seahorses sold in LFS's have come from breeding sources that don't go to the trouble and expense to raise them under best conditions and should be treated like purchasing wild caught and doing the deworming procedure before housing them in the display tank.
Unless you know who is the breeder of the ones for sale in the store, you don't know for sure because stores have been known to be misleading.
Also, many stores house the seahorses for sale in tanks that are part of a system that contains other fish. This exposes the seahorses to pathogens that they haven't grown up with and often succumb to once they do get that exposure.
My Thoughts on Seahorse Keeping
MMacro
New member
Feeding station is not going to solve the stress problem than comes from faster moving fish, especially like clowns who most often become aggressive when mature. Stress leads to disease followed by death.
It's not that it CAN'T be done, as some are successful, but the odds are greatly against it.
Unfortunately there is no way to predict in advance if it will work out as it takes seahorses that are at their hardiest coupled with tank mates that have the right personality to not do the aggression they normally exhibit.
Countless numbers of seahorses are lost all the time because so many people haven't got the correct information on seahorses needs, and/or choose to ignore the advice of so many of those who have tried and failed.
Even under ideal conditions it is no guarantee your seahorses will survive as many can be more susceptible to problems than others.
As for feeding stations, I personally no longer use them as some of my seahorses refuse to use them so I have to broadcast feed to satisfy them even if I use the feeding stations for ones that do.
Some hobbyists are fortunate enough that all their seahorses will use the stations, but again, IMO, it is not going to solve the problems you are going to have if you proceed the way you want to.
To put things in some perspective, I've been keeping seahorses now since 2002, and the knowledge available then was no-where near what we know today, making the hobby more successful now. I really believe that this is still an ongoing situation and books written today about the hobby will no longer be as true factually somewhere down the road, just like books written 10-15 yrs ago are now.
Even the information on seahorse.org is sadly in need of upgrading.
You can also check Tami's site at fusedjaw.com for more information.
I implore you to please to a LOT of investigation before you go ahead into this hobby. For the sake of the seahorses.
vlangel
Premium Member
Very well and compassionately said!
